According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a catheter for intra-urethral catheterisation of a male patient, wherein the lumen of the catheter is interrupted within a portion of the catheter that is for positioning within the prostatic part of the patient's urethra during catheterisation, and two by-pass openings through the catheter-wall are located one above and one below the interruption, the upper opening for discharging urine from the upper part of the lumen into the prostatic part of the urethra, and the lower opening for passing the urine from the prostatic part of the urethra into the lower part of the lumen for discharge therefrom.
Secretions from the prostatic part of the urethra are normally flushed away in the flow of urine from the bladder during micturition, but catheterisation using known forms of intra-urethral catheter creates a dead space in which the secretions are retained. Retention of the secretions can readily become a significant source of infection of the bladder, the upper urinary tract, the seminal vesicles, the vas deference, the epididymis and/or the testes. The catheter of the present invention has the advantage that it enables continued flushing away of the secretions, in the urine drained from the bladder, and so allows for catheterisation to be maintained over longer periods than is otherwise possible or prudent with known forms of intra-urethral catheter.
The upper and lower openings are preferably located on opposite sides of the tube from one another so that urine draining from the upper of the two openings flows round the outside of the catheter in returning to the catheter-lumen through the lower opening, and thereby flushes the prostatic part of the urethra more thoroughly than otherwise would be the case. There may, however, be more than one upper opening and/or more than one lower opening in the catheter-wall.
A portion of the length of the catheter that is for positioning within the penile urethra between the bulbar urethra and the external urethral orifice during catheterisation, may be of membraneous form, and at its proximal end for location at the external urethral orifice may extend into a portion for folding back over the glans. The provision of a membraneous portion of this nature has advantages for avoiding discomfort and nuisance often experienced by patients with known catheters where the proximal end of the catheter projects and hangs down from the penis. In this context, moreover, the provision of a membraneous portion is applicable to intra-urethral catheters generally whether or not provision for flushing the prostatic part of the urethra is included.